Reading+Art

Topic
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 * "Reading" Art/Art as Memoir **

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: How do you look at art to discover its meaning? How can a work of art be like a memoir? This topic will provided introduction to analyzing art. Observation and discussion of an artwork will teach students to look more closely at an image in order to derive meaning.

Common Core Standards

 * RL.9-10.7.** Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums, including what is emphasized or absent in each treatment
 * RI.9-10.7.** Analyze various accounts of a subject told in different mediums (e.g., a person’s life story in both print and multimedia), determining which details are emphasized in each account.
 * SL.9-10.2.** Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source.

Suggested Student Objectives

 * Works of art that address similar goals, such as self-portraits, are examined to compare presentation.
 * Understand how artists create narratives
 * Identify and explain the artists' use of symbolism, characterization, and imagery
 * Apply literary elements and techniques to portraits to "read" the text for interpretation
 * Analyze a work of art using strategies of argument to defend their interpretations

Suggested Additional Resources
//The following works are directly linked to the 9th grade Global studies curriculum. Students may practice analysis of these pieces as an interdisciplinary review.// - Ramses II was the third Egyptian pharaoh of the 19th dynasty. He reigned from 1279 B.C.E.-1213 B.C.E. He is often regarded as the greatest and most powerful pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire. Early in his life, Ramses II embarked on several campaigns to capture territories that were held by Hittites and Nubians. He also faced a constant struggle against the Libyans, who tried continually to conquer the Egyptian delta. In this painting, Ramses II is holding Nubian, Libyan, and Hittite prisoners of war by the hair.

- Archimedes was a mathematician and scientist who was born in Syracuse (in Sicily) around 287 BCE, and he was killed in 212 BCE by the Romans during a siege of his city partly because he was employed by the leaders of Syracuse as an expert in military defenses. He is most famous for his mathematical observations regarding volume (i.e. his shouting "Eureka!" "I have found it!" while in his bathtub), and his geometric calculations (for formulas of "pi" and, perhaps, for the first real attempt at "calculus" in Western history). However, he was also a military engineer, and one renowned story suggests that he created a series of mirrors, with which he burned Roman ships besieging his city. This drawing (from a 1572 book) attempts to demonstrate how it was done, and scientists at MIT, in 2005, attempted to reenact this, through a scientific demonstration.

- Ming-era illustration of Confucius teaching a group of disciples. Born in 551 BCE in the state of Lu, Confucius traveled widely, looking for a ruler who would heed his advice on good rulership and restoring the harmony to Chinese civilization. His prescriptions for reform looked back to the age of the founders of the Chou dynasty, King Wen and King Wu--and indeed even farther back to the semi-legendary founders of the Shang dynasty--for models of leadership, correct individual behavior, and the foundations of social order.

Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait at an early age (1628) Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait at the Age of 63 (1669) Frida Kahlo, The Two Fridas (1939) Jacob Lawrence, Self-Portrait (1977) Gustave Courbet, The Man Made Mad by Fear (self-portrait, 1843) [|Gustave Courbet, The Desperate Man] Louisa Matthiasdottir, Self-Portrait with Dark Coat (no date) Pablo Picasso, Self-Portrait (1907)
 * Art as Memoir **

Resource Links
//Found on Engageny.org//      //These resources are referenced throughout the activities section of this unit. //

The Metropolitan Museum of Art How to Analyze a Painting How to Read a Painting Questions to Ask when Analyzing a Painting for analyzing works of art

Activities

 * Introduction to Close Reading Through Visual Text **

//For example:// • Compare the process of “close reading” to the analytical processes used by other experts, such as musicians, scientists, or detectives; • Present a CSI video that demonstrates how a detective asks herself questions when first approaching a crime scene.
 * Activity #1 Introductory Analogy :** To introduce the unit and establish a link between questioning, close examination, and deepening understanding, you might use an analogy from another field that requires careful study and analysis.


 * a)** Use any of these analogies to illustrate how experts in various fields are able to analyze and understand artistic works, phenomena, places, events or situations because their training focuses them on details that the uninitiated do not typically notice. This training often involves a set of **guiding questions** that experts ask themselves to direct their attention to key elements of their fields of study. A musician might ask herself, “How do the sounds of the various instruments work together?” A crime scene investigator might ask, “What evidence suggests how the perpetrator came and went from the scene?” These more general questions lead the experts to then ask specific questions directly related to the object of investigation. For example, the general question concerning the perpetrator’s coming and going might lead the investigator to notice a set of muddy footprints. She then might ask, “What are the size and type of the shoes that left these muddy footprints?” Experts ask these questions so that they clearly understand what they are studying and can clearly communicate their understanding to others.


 * b)** Using the introductory analogy as a reference point, explain that selective readers also use guiding questions to help them look for evidence in texts.


 * c)** Introduce the **[[file:GQ9.pdf|Guiding Questions]] (GQ) Handout**, **[[file:RC9.pdf|Reading Closely Checklist]] and the [[file:TCD9.pdf|Text-Centered Discussions]] (TCD) Checklist**, orienting students to both the structure of the document and the questions in each row, and explaining that these are a general set of guiding questions that can direct their attention to key evidence in texts as they read and that there are connections between the texts/pictures (do not specify the connections).

Students examine the image(s) in small groups and answer the question “What stands out to me as I examine this image?” In their groups, students find several details that stand out to them, with one group member serving as a recorder of all their details. Groups may consult the GQ Handout (looking at images in place of text) for further questions to help them focus on details. Groups discuss what the details suggest to them and identify any new questions they have after examining and discussing the details.
 * Activity #2 Examing Photographs :** Introduce students to the set of photographs they will study, but provide minimal contextual information.

1. What is this text (photo) mainly about? 2. What stands out to me as I examine this text?
 * Model Text Questioning Sequence:**
 * Guiding Question(s):**

1. What do you notice about the people in each picture? 2. What is significant about the way the people are dressed or their actions?
 * Text-specific Question(s):**


 * Activity #3 Art as Memoir **: Have students focus on self-portraits comparing earlier works by Rembrandt with later ones. Have them discuss the idea that the self-portrait can be considered a "memoir without words". Follow this up with additional self-portraits.

Lead a discussion on what the groups noticed about the images and the questions they had • Discuss how these questions are “text-specific” questions that: a) Emerge from looking closely at the image b) Prompt them to look for more details c) Lead to a greater understanding of the image
 * Activity #4 Class Discussion and Summarizing Activity **:

• Students list three details they think are “key” for them in understanding something that is going on in one of the images.

• Students write a caption that summarizes what they think the image is about and share and compare their captions/titles, noting the details that have led to what they have written.

for Interpretation: Students will defend their interpretation of a work of art using evidence from the work to support their analysis Ex: Using details from two portraits, explain how the artist depicts the change in his character. //Note: The purpose of the exercise is for students to get a sense of how close examination of texts leads to questions which in turn lead to further examination of textual detail, and an ability to communicate// //meaning to others.//
 * Assessments**
 * Extension Writing Activity**: Creating an Argument for Interpretation: Students will defend their interpretation of a work of art using evidence from the work to support their analysis.

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